


Then and Now

by TheKrystalSakura



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Graphic Description, M/M, Past Character Death, Reincarnation AU, Spoilers, Suicide, Suicide Attempt, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 13:00:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17808428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKrystalSakura/pseuds/TheKrystalSakura
Summary: Reincarnation AUKokichi is sent to a new boarding school, only for everything to seem familiar. The place, the people, the topics of conversation... Even the birthmarks that his newfound friends have. Suspicious, he decides to investigate the reason behind everyone's case of deja vu. When he finds documents detailing the events of their past lives, Kokichi grows determined to figure out the real reason why everyone has been gathered together once again.





	Then and Now

_“Welcome, students, to our new school for gifted youths. We hope you will enjoy your years here!”_ the speakers blared. The buses and cars slowly emptied as the students filed into the school. One such student, Kokichi, sighs as he looks to the new boarding school that his parents had decided to send him to. _School for the gifted, huh?_ He wanders toward the dorms for the first-year students and nearly runs into someone ahead of him; their head is buried in their schedule, making them walk a bit slower.

As the teal-haired boy turns to look at him, Kokichi pales. “Ah- S-Sorry!” he squeaks, trying to make himself small.

“It’s okay. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” The boy looks up from his schedule, and Kokichi feels his cheeks heat up as soft golden eyes meet his own. “My name’s Shuichi. What’s yours?”

 _Shuichi…? Why does that name sound so familiar…?_ He quickly snaps himself out of his thoughts to answer. “Ah- I’m Kokichi.”

“It’s nice to meet you. You’re a first year, right? What floor are you on?”

“Um…” He glances to his schedule, crumpled slightly in his hand. “The fourth floor.”

“As am I. Maybe we’ll see each other.”

“Y-Yeah! M-Maybe.” _Why am I stuttering so much?_

Shuichi smiles and motions for Kokichi to follow him to the elevator. They head up to the fourth floor and look around for their dorm rooms. They find their dorms across the hall from each other, and Shuichi chuckles. “It seems like I _will_ be seeing you around.”

Kokichi smiles shyly. “Yeah, it seems so.”

They head into their rooms and settle in.

 

At dinner that night, Kokichi follows Shuichi down to the cafeteria. They go through one of the multiple lunch lines and settle down at a table. Soon enough, the other fourteen seats are soon filled by faces that are vaguely familiar to the purple-haired boy. They all introduce themselves, and Kokichi can’t help but notice that many of them have… Very odd birthmarks. He hums, curious, as they all chat.

The whole scene seemed oddly familiar; almost as if Kokichi had experienced it all before. Sixteen students, sitting around a large table and eating. Laughing at jokes, chatting about their hobbies…

 _Is this deja vu?_ he asks himself, thinking.

Suddenly, Shuichi speaks. “I feel like I’ve met you all before.”

The other members at the table nod and murmur in agreement.

“Yeah, you all seem really familiar,” a magenta-haired boy named Kaito agrees.

“We could be experiencing deja vu?” a boy in a medical mask -  Korekiyo - suggests.

“Perhaps this meeting was predicted in a dream by Atua!” A white-haired girl, Angie, adds.

Shuichi blushes, smiling a bit. “Thank you for not thinking I’m crazy.”

“Why would we?” Kirumi, a girl with tiger-stripe birthmarks, wonders.

“It just… It sounds weird.”

“I don’t think so,” Kokichi murmurs.

Shuichi smiles shyly at him and tucks a loose strand of hair behind his ear. When the teal locks move, Kokichi sees a birthmark buried beneath his hair, on the side of his head. Before he can figure out the shape, Shuichi’s hair falls back into place.

Kokichi frowns and touches his right upper arm, where he had one of two birthmarks. He also has a mark in the middle of his back, about halfway down his spine.

Movement in the corner of his eye catches his attention. He turns, only to see people in lab coats talking softly in the corner of the room, glancing around and comparing notes. At the sight, he frowns and tenses up, immediately on-edge. He doesn’t relax even after the people - scientists, perhaps - leave, still chattering amongst themselves. Once they’re gone, he turns back to his plate, his appetite suddenly lost.

“Are you okay?” a blonde girl with musical-note hair clips - Kaede, he remembers - asks him.

“Y-Yeah, I’m… I’m fine.”

“You’re not eating anymore.”

“I’m just not hungry.”

“Maybe you should rest? We have a long first week ahead of us.”

He shrugs and stands. “Maybe.”

“We’ll see you tomorrow,” she says with a soft smile.

The nods and leaves the cafeteria. On his way to the dorm rooms, he looks around and finds a passage secluded in darkness. Kokichi glances around, making sure he’s alone, before wandering down the long, dark hallway. He reaches an open doorway at the other end and steps into… A brightly-lit laboratory, which is mysteriously empty. He enters the lab and begins to look around.

A bundle of files on a table catches his eye. He frowns and investigates, only for his eyes to widen and a gasp to lodge itself in the back of his throat.

The files are a stack of detailed death records, with the victims’ faces matching those of his new friends and classmates. He picks up the first file - that for Rantaro Amami, a boy with pale green hair on most of his head; a portion on the back of his skull was a bright white. Skimming through the file, he traces most of the deaths back to something called the Killing Game. He swallows thickly and looks through the rest of the files. Toward the back of the stack, he finds his own record and reads through it.

**[Name: Kokichi Ouma**

**Age: 18**

**Cause of Death: Strike-9 Poison, blood loss, crushed by hydraulic press.]**

_I… I died…?_

The file goes into detail about a “class trial” that solved his death. The entries send chills down his spice as he fights back the urge to vomit. Reading on, he finds a name mentioned alongside his own: Kaito Momota, the magenta-haired astronaut.

He flips to the next file, which is on Kaito.

**[Name: Kaito Momota**

**Age: 18**

**Cause of Death: Illness during execution]**

_Execution…?!_

He looks around and sees a copier in the corner. He swallows thickly and grabs the stack of documents, forcing them through the copier. He takes the fresh prints and stuffs them in a folder. He hurriedly leaves the lab and hurries up to his room. Once he’s alone, he reads every gory detail of everyone’s death.

The file after Kaito’s belongs to Shuichi.

**[Name: Shuichi Saihara**

**Age: 18**

**Cause of Death: GSW to head. Apparent suicide.]**

Tears well in Kokichi’s eyes. _Shuichi killed himself…? But he’s so nice, why…?!_ As he continues reading, he finds his answer.

**[Shuichi Saihara was known as the Ultimate Detective during the 53rd Killing Game. Having solved many of the murders, the deaths of his companions weighed heavily on his mind.]**

“Shuichi…” he whispers, leaning his head on one hand, “You felt guilty…”

**[He was found dead in his apartment by Maki Harukawa and Himiko Yumeno only two months after being released from the Killing Game.]**

Kokichi begins to cry, making sure to keep his tears from hitting the papers. “No… No, you… You deserved better…!”

**[A note found at the scene proclaimed his love for a previously killed member of the game. Keep an eye on his condition.]**

The file ends, and Kokichi sniffles as he wipes his eyes. “I wonder who it was…” he mumbles. After about another fifteen minutes, he leans back in his desk chair, exhausted from reading so long. The words haunt him as he begins to imagine some of the gruesome scenarios. He shudders and packs the folder away in a desk drawer, getting ready for bed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! Thanks for reading!
> 
> I plan to update soon. Stay tuned!


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